Copy Tip: The Most Powerful Word You Can Use in Your Sales Copy (and it’s not “Free” or “You”)

If you want to sell more of your products or services, start using the word “because” in your sales copy – it’s the most powerful word you can use.

It has surprising selling power when used to tell your prospects why they should buy your product or service. And leaving it out will depress your response.

Why does it work? Because your prospects need a reason to order your product — and they are conditioned to look for that reason after the word “because.”

And what’s amazing is using “because” often works even when the reason that follows isn’t much of a reason at all.

Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer has conducted some fascinating research on this phenomenon that is quite instructive.

As part of her research, Dr. Langer conducted an experiment. She sent plants to a copy machine in a busy graduate school office. Their job: to skip the line so they could make their copies before anyone else.

One of her plants was instructed to say: “I have five pages. May I use the copy machine?” In this case, 65% of the people allowed the plant to skip the line.

However, when the plant added the words, “because I’m in a rush,” a stunning 94% complied with the request.

This makes sense because you’re often willing to make allowances for people in a hurry. But what’s surprising is what happened when Dr. Langer’s plants replaced “because I’m in a rush” with “because I need to make some copies.”

You’d expect that such a poor reason why would get poor results but, remarkably, the plants got virtually the same compliance rate as when they gave a good reason.

In other words, the real power is in the word “because,” not in the reason that follows.

Of course, it’s still a good idea to provide a good reason why someone should buy your products or services, but be sure to include the critical word “because.”

Bottom line: Whenever you’re asking a prospect to do what you want them to—whether in sales copy or in person—make sure you give them a strong reason-why, preceded with the powerful word “because.”

And then watch your response soar.

If you need help improving the credibility behind your copy so you can boost your leads and sales, email Caleb at caleb@cdmginc.com call me at 310-212-5727.